HONG KONG — A village official in southeastern China, whose detention over the weekend set off protests, admitted to taking bribes in a videotaped confession released on Tuesday. But the man’s wife said she believed that the confession was forced, and it was unclear if its broadcast would have any effect in dispelling demonstrations in the fishing village of Wukan.

Wukan, in Guangdong Province, became the focus of international attention five years ago when residents took to the streets to protest the sale of communal lands, temporarily forcing the local authorities out of the village of 15,000. After a compromise arranged by provincial officials, Wukan residents voted in new local leaders. Lin Zuluan, one of the protest organizers, was elected the Communist Party secretary for the village.

Mr. Lin was detained late Friday on suspicion of receiving bribes and abuse of power. But some residents believed that he was being targeted because he planned to hold a public meeting on the unresolved issue of the land sales and to petition higher authorities for help solving the long-simmering issue.

Thousands of people took to the streets on Sunday and Monday, waving Chinese flags and calling on the police to release Mr. Lin, who is in his early 70s.

In a videotaped confession that was shown at a news conference on Tuesday, Mr. Lin said that he had taken “huge kickbacks” in communal land transactions.

Photo

Villagers in Wukan carried Chinese flags as they marched in protest on Monday after the detention of a local leader, Lin Zuluan.Credit
James Pomfret/Reuters

The statement was quickly called into question by Mr. Lin’s wife, Yang Zhen, who told reporters that she believed his confession was forced. “This is just to trick people,” she said, according to Apple Daily, a Hong Kong-based newspaper. “He is very clean.”

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On Monday, a local official was videotaped slapping at cameras and swinging an umbrella at a group of Hong Kong journalists whom he accused of “following like dogs.” One journalist warned the official that if he hit them, they would call the police.

The government of Shanwei, the prefecture-level city that includes Wukan, later blamed news media outlets from outside the Chinese mainland, including Apple Daily and Initium Media from Hong Kong, of “instigation, planning and direction” in Wukan. The statement on Tuesday from the Shanwei authorities did not detail the allegations, but it added that unspecified legal measures would be taken against the reporters.

Mark Simon, a senior executive with Next Media, which owns Apple Daily, called the allegations of instigation “silly.” He said in a telephone interview that he was not aware of any steps that had been taken against the journalists on Tuesday.